PHYSICAL HEALTH 101: How I lost 20!
- F . F . Yuzoff
- Jan 6, 2017
- 16 min read
20 what you asked? Kilograms, that's what. It was tough, no doubt. But Tough Love. Which makes it all the more rewarding.
Where to begin...
Well there's a lot to put down but let's try your best to squeeze everything in, F! Ganbare!!!
The Turning Point...
Living my life of 27 years, I was never really bothered about my body. I've always been overweight but I managed to somehow maintain the same range of weight (57-63 kilos) all the way through college (from when I was 13 to 25) . I never went over 63 kilos back then (up until April 2014). Not that this was an achievement or anything but I was somewhat content. "I'm just overweight but not unhealthy" I thought. Based on my highest BMI count during those years, I was slightly overweight, yes, but never obese so I've always had a carefree outlook on this matter.
However, roughly about a year ago, I seem to have upgraded myself from being slightly overweight to being WAY obese when I landed at the BMI score of 34.9 (August, 2015) in just a year. Yerp, that's a BIG leap. I gained about 12++ kilos (from 63 to 75.8), went up 2 sizes (from L to XXL) and added lots of extra inches all over my body all in just one year, which was insane. Well, a lot happened. But to put it simply, I was a 75.8 kilo, 4'10" female. I felt instantly unhealthy by this fact and was terrified. So I told myself enough is enough and that I need to get on the health wagon and start my journey.
First of all....
No, I'm not a personal trainer nor am I a doctor or a certified nutritionist, scientist trying to sell their shit online. I am also not one of those smart asses who think they know everything about fitness. nutrition and health, who thinks they are entitled to giving people advice just because they studied and researched a lot and get results.
I seriously LOATHED those people. Especially personal trainers or some claimed themselves as "Master" trainers (God! What is that even) who sell themselves big, making it sound like they are your holy grail to getting fit and healthy, reminding you of how lucky you are to have encountered them this early in your life and how you will not get healthy without their help, blablabla. The funny thing about these trainers is most of them can't even explain to you about the fundamental things in a proper manner using science and true logic. I've met a few (around 6 trainers) from different countries and ethnic backgrounds, who make these claims but can't even explain why a high sodium diet is bad or that eating healthy fats are actually important.
When asked, some avoided the questions thoroughly with a "Why it's bad is not important, all you need to know is that it's bad and you need to avoid it. Capeesh?" Urm capeesh not! Even if they do know the answers, looking down on the intellect of their clients by refusing to explain things also proves that they suck as a person. Others gave me answers but it's either inaccurate or worse, they started going off talking like a know-it-all, explaining shit using difficult scientific terms but actually all they do is bullshit innocent clients all the way. It's like when I checked back with professionals who are actually certified and have been in the industry for more than a decade to know enough, I found out that what these trainers said didn't even make sense and I was had.
Yes, I am bitter. But only because they never fail to disappoint me. I have yet to meet a personal trainer who is actually legit. Who knows that all clients are different and that there's no one-size-fits-all method to everyone. Who is willing to explain to me thoroughly in a way that make sense scientifically and in layman terms with proper given examples based on real life experiences of themselves and their clients. Who is not only trying to sell me training sessions by giving me unreasonable sounding empty promises that even a fool would not fall for. But then again to be fair, my world is pretty small and I'm sure there are many great respectable trainers out there waiting for me to discover them. Nevertheless am I asking too much of a personal trainer? No, I don't think so. They get paid by each client to help them achieve their goals and their goals are all different so the least these trainers can do is to continue studying and researching different methods to cater to different clients right? Picture a fashion designer who designs apparels for celebrities. All celebrities have different taste in fashion so it's the designers' job to cater to their needs and demands accordingly. It's the same way for trainers as well. All clients are different so they can't expect clients to get the same results using one designed workout.
I was through with trainers so I took matters into my own hands. I studied and researched a lot to find a customized, suitable method that's perfect for ME through A LOT of experiments and trial and errors. Everything in like is an experiment. It's filled with trial and errors. Like trying out skin care products. While some worked for you, some didn't. The same thing with fitness.
Along the way though, I met a lot of real people, people like me, who was just as clueless as I was at the beginning who have tried everything and anything to reach their goals. I trust these people MORE to be honest. Of course I never trust anyone 100% and take all of their advice with a grain of salt simply because everyone is different and things that work for others might not work for me but also because they are not condescending. They don't advice me like a know-it-all, all they do is explain to me what they had done and whether it works for them or not. This is probably due to the fact that they are normal people who simply wants to share their experiences and enjoy the fact that their method worked for them. There's usually no ulterior motives. Yes, this is why I don't trust personal trainers. They are often businessmen first over anything else. Of course it can't be helped, it's their job after all to make sales and some are genuine great trainers but still, I'm not going to spend my time experimenting on them. Instead, I'd rather spend my time experimenting on products.
So...
Why even bother to write about this?
No, I'm not writing this to badmouth trainers or anybody for that matter. It's not even for the purpose of giving advice to people on what to do or how. No no, hell no. I know I'm not entitled to it and I won't even try.
I'm writing this for myself. This is my life journal anyway but if people find any shared information here useful for them, then good for them but I put everything here as a record of my own, to remind myself of the mistakes I've done in the past that might be useful for my own future goals.
Before I started, I...
1. Went on a journey of self REdiscovery.
I LOVE to think. It's my favorite past time. I'm always fascinated by how I keep rediscovering new things about myself as I grow. It's a fun experience seeing yourself improve and grow day by day. So, I signed myself up for a self REdiscovery program to allow me to understand myself further so that I can stay clear of my purpose, aim and resolve for doing this.
I chose the perfect day to do this, on my scheduled relaxing SPA day.
As I was lying down on my bed in my lavender scented darken room, face smeared with hydration mask, I think about why I wanted to do this. Like I said I never really cared much about how I look. I came up with many reasons such as appearance, confidence, hygiene and so on. Then I asked myself why I failed every single time at my attempt to lose weight and I came to the resolve that I love to binge and I focused too much on the wrong reasons to begin with.
You see, all of the reasons I mentioned above are in a way, important, but were never enough to keep me going or provide me long lasting results. I'll go on a crash diet, lose a bit of weight, gained back more than I lost and then I give up. Same pattern every time. Then it hit me. Never had I once chose to get fit because of Health. When I was in junior high, it was because I wanted to fit in and people's opinion mattered at the time. Then in high school, there was a boy I like and I really wanted him to notice me. See? It was always for every other reason but Health.
So I resolved there and then that this time around I need to get my purpose right. It's got to be for something life changing, something worthwhile, something that's more important than anything in life, something sustainable and I come up with an answer. There's nothing more important to me than life and to live, I need to be healthy. So there. It was so obvious an answer that it took me long enough to realize but I'm psyched that I was finally able to conclude that my purpose of losing weight and getting fit should be for one purpose and one purpose only and that is, for Health. I guess that was just what I needed; the right intention, right purpose of achieving something because finally with this new mindset, I managed to achieve my goals.
2. Determine and define my fitness goals
So I already know that I want to get healthy and that my first step to physical health is fitness. But what exactly do I want to achieve through fitness? That was something I really wanted to determine before I start.
Do I just want to lose the weight and stop once I've achieved the weight I want? Or do I want more? I realized that I wanted to go all the way. Since I'm doing this, let's go BIG and aim HIGH shall we. So, rather than just shredding the weight off, I actually wanted to change my body. I wanna look lean, fit and strong. Not for everyone else but for me. With this in mind, I was ready to do everything. Through this, I was determined to lose the weight, lose the fat, gain muscle, get six packs, sculpt and tone my whole body while increasing my stamina and metabolism along the way. Sounds like a lot of work? IT IS and I'm not even half way there to be honest.
I'm an impatient person but as much as I wanted to take a shortcut, I knew I had to do it step by step. Starting with losing weight first above everything else. Once I've lost the unwanted kilos, I'll focus on fat loss. This will be followed by muscle building and probably finished with sculpting and toning. Or that was what I had in mind back then. It is subject to change.
A year had past and I've manage to shed the weight off. I am currently at the fat loss stage. But why didn't I do both, lose weight and fat the same time? Well, here's why. I've always hated exercising. Just uttering the word "exercise" annoyed me back then. But I wanted to get fit and exercise is something I can't do without. But the only exercise that I could get myself up to do was martial arts and dance related exercises. Kickboxing and Zumba to be exact. Those were the only workouts I was able to continue doing probably because they don't feel like exercising. So it's easier to continue. Lifting weights at the beginning, annoyed me a lot. Every time I think about weightlifting day, I dreaded it. I will lift a little and give up pretty quickly (as in the rep count). Not to mention, lifting weights gave me knee pain especially on leg days. So I naturally did more cardio than strength training. Say 4 out of the 6 days I'll do cardio workouts.
I REGRETTED it. Should have lift more. Doing a lot of cardio for a year, I lost the weight yes but I didn't lose fat. If anything I lost a lot of muscle. My stamina increased but I still lack strength. I can't even do more than 10 push ups back then. I am a product called SKINNY FAT. Yes, I wear a size S now and I look nice clothed but naked, not really. The muffin top and cellulite around my body are still very apparent and I look flabby still. I was happy for one thing but sad for the other because I know, losing weight doesn't necessarily mean you're healthy but at the same time, I did achieve something. Whatever it is, I realized that it's the fat vs muscle vs total body water ratio that matters.
Through my mistakes and newfound knowledge, I am now even more determined to turn things around. My mission now is to bring down the fat percentage to a normal range of 17-24%. A step at a time is key.
So I've bounded on my fat loss journey since December 2016, last year. I thought losing weight was tough but trying to burn stubborn fat has proved me wrong. It's super hard. It only make sense though. I've been slowly accumulating this fat ever since childhood. Ahh those chocolate bars, ice creams and CAKES. Good going, younger me. Preparing yourself to suffer later, huh? But I'm not going to give up and this below is my inspiration to continue my journey.
Ahh Gigi, my role model. Hey aim high and you'll get close to it right? Damn her abs...arghh. I think the best pose to see how fit and toned a person is overall is by photographing them diagonally. Like in this picture, you can see that she is very very toned like she's not carrying any fat. I aim to look this way diagonally too!
3. STUDY AND RESEARCH!
Yes, you read right, STUDY and RESEARCH. Everything in life should be customized because everyone is created and programmed differently. Different DNA, different body type, different habits, different preference in food and workouts, really everything. So naturally I believe my approach to fitness should be customized as well. Having said that, I knew I had to equip myself with as much information as I can before proceeding. I need to find not only the right method specifically catered for me but the method that would be sustainable that I can surely continue for a long time.
So I started with first determining my body type.
It appears that I'm an Endomorph. This means I am larger in appearance with heavier fat accumulation and little muscle definition. Wow, thanks, body. The worst out of the three body types no doubt.
I then continue with my body measurements such as weight, fat %, fat mass, muscle %, muscle mass, body type, metabolism level, BMR, body inches, etc. Ha ha ha. Check it out, the numbers weren't pretty.
My weight records as of September 2015
Weight - 75.8 kg
Height - 4'10"
Body fat percentage - 41.8% (Yikes)
Muscle mass - 28.7
Bone mass - 2.7 kg
Total body water percentage - 44.8%
BMI - 34.9
This is all my scale shows and I don't think it is at all accurate but I just wanted to roughly measure the changes, so it's fine at the time.
My body measurements as of September 2015
Shoulder - 17"
Upper arm - 15"
Chest - 39"
Waist - 35"
Hips - 42"
Thigh - 27"
Calves - 18"
Yes, I was big for a short person. Nope, no pictures, but I was wearing XXL sized clothes, you can imagine how I looked.
Based on the information I retrieved above, I read about what needs to be improved and how. This guided me to determine the fitness programs that would suit me. Cardio and strength training workouts like martial arts incorporated workouts, zumba, aerobics, TABATA, HIIT, kettlebell and resistance band workouts were among the few that interested me most. I learned that apparently, in order to lose weight, I need to incorporate more cardio than strength or weight training to first get rid of the excess fat before building muscle or at least this was what I understood back then. Which is perfect because I used to dislike weightlifting a lot back then.
And so my weekly workouts used to look like this.
My weekly workout program
Start date: September 2015
Monday - Cardio/ 1 hour
Tuesday - Strength/ 30 mins
Wednesday - Cardio/ 1 hour
Thursday - Cardio/ 1 hour
Friday - Rest
Saturday - Cardio/ 1 hour
Sunday - Strength/ 30 mins
I workout at night at around 11 pm every night. I prefer it that way because by the time it ended, my body is prepared to engage in a deep slumber. People argue about the best time to workout. Some say morning before breakfast, some say morning after breakfast, some claim working out at night is bad due to the elevated heart rate interrupting sleep and etc. There are a lot of theories. This one simply works for me.
Variety in my workouts was the key back then! It kept me interested and it also, in a way, accelerated results. In my case at least. My first guess was that my body was confused by different body movements that different workout programs offer but now that I think about it, it's more psychological than anything. I am the kind of person who gets bored easily so changing workout routines helped keep me in the game, that's all there is to it I learned. But regardless, I always alternate between different trainers and workout programs to keep myself interested.
My favourite Cardio workouts
Zumba
Cardio Kickboxing
Punching bag incorporated TABATA workouts
Dance
Aerobics
HIIT workouts
My favourite Strength training workouts
Weights
Kettle bell workout
Yoga
Pilates
Cross fit
Explosive or Power training
Body weight training
Resistance band workout
Weight (dumbbell, barbell, kettlebell) used - lightest 2.5kg, heaviest 8.0kg
Resistance band - 15lb
My favorite workout trainers and workout programs
Beto Perez
Zumba Exhilarate
Jillian Michaels
Shred it with weights
One week shred
Kickbox fastfix
Yoga Meltdown
No more trouble zones
Banish fat boost metabolism
Xbox Fitness
MOSSA Fight
MOSSA Power
MOSSA Groove
Dance Central Spotlight
Zumba and kickboxing probably contributed the most in the early stages of my journey to weight loss. I lost A LOT of weight just by doing these two. 6 months after I lost about 9 kilos, I incorporated more weight training workouts in order to start increasing muscles at the same time. I did see an increase in muscle mass by doing this. Not much but okay. I exchanged one cardio day to strength training. Thanks to my increased stamina though, this upgrade was possible.
I remember 3-4 months before my goal weight, I've lost up to 15 kilos, I only needed another 7 kilos to reach my goal. By this time, I've noticed a significant increased in stamina. Not much in strength but I am definitely stronger than I was before. I wake up energized, my speed increased and my muscles were starting to show. It felt great! But I also realized that the last few pounds are harder to lose. So, I decided that it is again time to change my workout routine, this time around I exchanged another cardio day and incorporated Yoga instead to condition, sculpt and tone my body. The results? I felt more flexible and more toned in a way. It really helped with my sore muscles. I still look flabby though.
Before I decided on the fitness programs above, I did run a fitness test for myself to calculate the level of workout intensity I can take (beginner, intermediate or advance) and was surprised but happy to learn that I can actually handle intermediate workouts.
To be fair, I did study martial arts for years during high school and did participate in sports like basketball (don't laugh) and cycling for a while so I know that I'm not that weak. But I didn't exercise at all once I started working (hence, the one-year-weight-gain) and I can feel that my stamina level was deteriorating. Lucky because otherwise I think it would have taken longer for me to see results.
Next, I learned about the proper way to diet that would help me lose weight while gaining muscle which include paying attention to macro count, calorie count, foods to eat, foods to avoid, food that assist in accelerating weight loss or muscle gain, etc).
What I learned really is as long as I eat whole foods and cut out processed food as much as I can, I would be able to maintain a healthy eating habit. It's all about balancing the nutrient consumed. But since I am also on a mission to lose fat and gain muscle, this proves to be a bit difficult.
Macro nutrient and calorie count
My macros include 20% carb, 40% protein and 30% fat at the beginning of my weight loss journey which slowly changed to 40% protein, 30% carb and 20% fat as I progress along.
Foods to eat
Since I'm an Endomorph, I figured I need to cut fat as much as I can but I tried not to go too low as well for I learned that you need fat to burn fat. What I need to be aware of is the type of fat I was eating. So I incorporated healthy fats like avocado, chia seeds, salmon, olive oil, healthy cheeses etc and avoid unhealthy fats like trans fat or foods with high saturated fat content.
I was also careful with carbs. I didn't touch white rice or white bread at all during the one year I was fighting to reach my goals. Instead, I substituted them with unpolished brown rice and purple wheat 100% whole grain bread as part of my carb staple. I also ate a lot of vegetables with high carb content as a mean of getting carb in a healthier way. I didn't eat fruits much during this one year to avoid sugar intake increase.
More than anything else, I focused a lot on proteins only because it's the macro type that includes all of my favorite food! I can easily overeat protein. Whole foods alone, there's already so many choices; Beef, Chicken, Tuna, Salmon, eggs, dairy products like cheese, milk, yogurt, and so on. I also consume protein through protein shakes, it's great!
Last but not least, I paid attention to the do's and don'ts ( simple rules to further assist in weight loss like drinking water 30 mins before meal, etc) and other important health related studies.
Besides preventing injuries, I wanted to make sure that the results last and that all of my hard work paid off. The most frustrating to me would be to not achieve the results I want after working so hard only to learn later that it's due to my own lack of knowledge.
But all that said, I've managed to keep it off so far. However, you never stop learning I guess because only recently I've come to realize that I've committed a few mistakes (more on this later) despite the results I got but this just motivates me to learn more and improve myself for my next goal.
Once I started, I...
4. RECORD, RECORD & RECORD!
I recorded almost EVERYTHING. From body measurement to calorie and macro counts to workout programs and the equipment I used and more. Since I've decided that this would be a life changing experience, I decided to record every aspect of my journey from day one up to today. From what I learned, recording is essential in helping you keep track of the progress you have made in order to keep you going and set new goals.
5. Keep going and make it a Lifestyle
Don't think, just do it! Patience and discipline are the two things that most of us struggle with but required to have in our journey to getting fit and healthy. This is something that usually requires strong will power, what with temptations and obstacles surrounding us, it is impossible to do without. But I realized that it is much less of a struggle when I make fitness part of my LIFESTYLE. Since fitness became a part of my life, everything comes naturally to me. I no longer find working out or clean eating as a chore like I used to. In fact, I enjoy it so much that I'm looking forward to new workouts and new recipes these days. With this, I've concluded that fitness and health is not something I go through but live by. Just at the picture says....
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